Never have there been five friends as infamous as THE BAD GUYS—Mr. Wolf, Mr. Snake, Mr. Piranha, Mr. Shark and Ms. Tarantula. After years of countless heists and being the world’s most-wanted villains, the gang is finally caught. Mr. Wolf brokers a deal to keep them out of prison and the Bad Guys set out to fool the world into believing they’ve gone good. Packed with huge laughs and edgy action, being bad has never been so fun in this action-comedy from DreamWorks Animation.
For in-depth thoughts on The Bad Guys, please see my colleague Dom Fisher’s review from its original theatrical release here.Â
Video Quality
The Bad Guys comes to Blu-Ray with a stunning, detailed 1080p transfer. The level of nuance these animators put into each environment shines through here. This is a very stylized film which takes the 3D digital animation and adds shades of traditional in a way that makes things feel more tactile. The textures, from the character designs to the environments, are extremely impressive and give the film a real sense of depth. Black levels are incredibly strong with no hint of compression artifacts or digital anomalies of the sort. The colors present in this transfer are very bold with the striking range of hues permeating every inch of the frame. The fluidity of the character designs stands out as all of the individual strands of hair are unique and flowing in a natural way. There is a 4K UHD Blu-Ray on the market that was not made available to me for review. To say this is anything less than near-perfection would be preposterous.Â
Audio Quality
This Blu-Ray utilizes a Dolby Atmos track that gives this lively film a real sense of urgency. There is an emphasis on the front channels for a good portion of the sounds, but activity kicks in to the surrounds and rears when fleshing out the environment and during more action-oriented bits. Even the height channels offer good support in the realm of cacophonous overhead texture. The film really satisfies when it comes to the mood-enhancing music, and this track pumps the sound throughout the room in a really satisfying, enveloping way. Dialogue is crisp and clear without ever getting lost amongst the music or sound effects. The low end effects from the subwoofer give certain moments that much-needed extra weight to completely capture the stakes. Atmospheric sound effects are rendered appropriately within the mix so that directionality is never an issue. The Bad Guys is way more flashy than you probably ever would guess.Â
Special Features
- Audio Commentary: Director Pierre Perifel, Producer Damon Ross, Head of Story Nelson Yokota, Head of Character Animation JP Sans, and Production Designer Luc Desmarchelier provide a steady and informative commentary track in which they delve into finding the emotional throughline of the film, the extended track shot featured in the opening, trying to find the right balance within the animation style, the easter eggs peppered throughout, inspirations from classic heist films and more. This is a fun listen if you want to get even more from the experience. Â
- Maraschino Ruby: A four-minute all-new short in which The Bad Guys are tempted away from their turn to good by an alluring ruby that is ripe for the picking. This is a breezy fun time which acts as another fun entry into this world. Â
- Deleted Scenes: Five scenes of unused and unfinished material totaling 11 minutes is provided here including a lengthy alternate opening featuring a detailed bank robbery, a “snake attack”, a brief post-credits scene and more.Â
- Devise The Plan – Making The Bad Guys: A seven-minute featurette in which the cast and creative team discuss the source material, the allusions to various heist films, the distinct character traits, the vocal performances, how the story and animation evolved, working during a pandemic and more.Â
- Assemble The Crew: A five-part breakdown of each of the main Bad Guys totaling seven minutes in which you get to learn more about what these performers bring to the roles and how they shaped them for the creative team.Â
- It’s Showtime – Cast Table Read: A six-minute look at the virtual table read with the cast and creative team which gives you an early glimpse at the performers getting into character.Â
- Snake’s Frozen Pop Shop: A helpful tutorial from Mr. Snake which guides you through how to make your own tasty frozen pops and how to disguise them so no one else is able to eat them before you can!Â
- From The Drawing Room: Another helpful tutorial, this time from head of story, Nelson Yokota, in which he shows you how to create your own storyboard and draw each of the main characters.Â
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Final Thoughts
The Bad Guys is one of the unexpected standouts of the year, especially in the field of animation. There is a real care to pay homage to classic genre films from the music to shot composition and more. This attention to detail and cinematic fan service will make many fans giddy as they are treated to something audiences of all ages can appreciate. The pacing can feel a touch sluggish in a handful of scenes, but overall the film offers big laughs and solid intrigue from beginning to end. The vocal performers add a lot to these characters in a way that makes you more than ready for another outing. Universal Pictures Home Entertainment has provided a Blu-Ray for this film that is quite a knockout in the A/V department, so we can only imagine how amazing the 4K UHD Blu-Ray is that was not available for review. Either way, you are getting a disc of great quality filled with fun special features. Highly RecommendedÂ
The Bad Guys is currently available to purchase on 4K UHD Blu-Ray, Blu-Ray, DVD and Digital.Â
Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.
Disclaimer: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.